Suffering, surrendering part of being in the Potter’s hand, McCartney says in chapel message

Christians must submit to God’s hand as the potter who is shaping them, even when that may involve suffering, preached Bob McCartney at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College, during a Sept. 1 chapel message.

McCartney has served as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Wichita Falls, Texas, since 2008. He led churches in Texas and Louisiana for 19 years prior to coming to Wichita Falls. McCartney is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and has a Master of Divinity with biblical languages (1991) and Doctor of Ministry (2003) degrees from Southwestern Seminary. 

McCartney said he is grateful for what God is doing at Southwestern. He explained that his teenage daughter is an athlete and he quoted Christian Olympic athlete Sydney McLaughlin: “What I have in Christ is far greater than anything I have or don’t have in life. God has prepared me for such a time as this.” He told the students, “God is preparing you for a moment. God has raised up this generation to meet the needs to speak into this culture.”

As McCartney began the message from Jeremiah 18:1-6, he described how Jeremiah was not only a city prophet, but he was a country boy, too. He said he could relate to Jeremiah as McCartney grew up on a farm in West Tennessee. “Jeremiah was a simple man and [God] wanted him to go to a common place that was in every town, which was a potter’s house,” he said. 

McCartney remembered when he was a student at the seminary sitting in chapel and he shared what he wished someone would have told him when he was younger. “Trust the hand of God to shape your life. The potter is God and we are the clay,” said McCartney. He reminded the gathering of the prophet Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 64:8, “Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we all are the work of your hands.” 

“The divine potter makes unique, extraordinary vessels. Before God formed you in the womb, He knew you. God wants to use the unique you that He created,” said McCartney. He shared how when he was a younger preacher, he often would compare himself to other preachers. He explained how this is not fruitful and how God wants to use believers’ unique gifts for His glory. McCartney noted Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” urging the audience to never doubt that God created each person for a purpose and on purpose. 

McCartney also said God loves each person as they are, but He will not leave individuals as they are. “We have a patient, divine potter who does not throw away the clay. To bring us to usefulness, God must bring us to brokenness. That’s uncomfortable,” he said. 

McCartney explained following college graduation, he got married that summer and was set to enter law school with the ultimate goal of becoming a politician. “I knew I didn’t want to be in politics to serve people honorably. I wanted to be in politics because I wanted power and prestige,” he said. Only 24 days after he was married, his wife died in a car accident. That evening ended his dreams, and he was broken, he told the assembly.

McCartney said he has come to understand that for something to come to him, it has to pass through the hands of God first and he is sure of God’s love for him. “What God did was He removed part of my heart of stone that is so self-centered and so bent on my own glory. God is sovereign over my suffering. The sovereign God of the universe created me for His glory and is going to use my suffering,” said McCartney. 

He reminded the audience that God has a purpose in each person’s suffering and if a person serves the Lord Jesus Christ there will be suffering. 

“I want you to know that when you are broken and this fallen world rips us apart, we have a divine potter whose heart is to put us back together and mold us,” McCartney added. “Have you surrendered absolutely everything to Him or are you pushing His hand away?” 

McCartney stated that Romans 8:29 says believers are predestined by God to be conformed to the image of His Son. “This is so we will reflect the glory of the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself up for us so that we will reflect it in such a way that this lost generation will come to know Him,” he said. 

McCartney’s entire address can be viewed here.

Chapel is held every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10 a.m. (CT) in MacGorman Chapel on the campus of Southwestern Seminary and TBC. Chapel may be viewed live at swbts.live.